I noticed a few friends on facebook are using the app "Insight Timer" which is a meditation timer.For those of you who have been using it, I would be interested to know your thoughts. I generally use a sound file of the recitation of the tikapatthana, sutta that I know goes for a desired period. I also use the timer function on my phone or tablet.Thanks in advance.kind regards,

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

I use it and I like the way it tracks my average sit time and that you can earn stars and badges for hitting arbitrary goals. Even better is the ability to create groups (we could start a Dhamma Wheel meditation group if desired) and to see your friends meditating. I used another timer for years until I switched to this one. Highly recommended!

To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas.-Dhp. 183

Thanks KB, I'll be guided by your recommendation and I'll give it a shot.

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

I tried to use Lotus Bud on my iPhone and with Do Not Disturb on, the chime would not sound to indicate the end of my chosen time period for meditation. I've since switched to Insight Timer and it functions properly even with Do Not Disturb on. I have Insight Time for my Kindle Fire as well and I'm satisfied with it's functions.

I use the timer with interval bells function everyday. I also think it is superior to all other timers I've tried.

"No tree becomes rooted and sturdy unless many a wind assails it. For by its very tossing it tightens its grip and plants its roots more securely; the fragile trees are those that have grown in a sunny valley."

I recently got myself a new smartphone. Remembered this thread and thought I would download the Insight Timer app for android.

Turns out the singing bowl tone thing is too quiet for my phone. I had turned the volume up to max too. Maybe my phone's speakers just suck or there is too much ambient noise, but when it ended I did not hear the ending sound. I did only try the free version, while the pay version has a thing where you can repeat the tone for a few times, which might help me hear it better, I dunno.

Which is plenty loud enough for me to hear, is free and can repeat the alarms if needed. I also use it for work/home stuff, when I'm doing laundry, cooking, etc... it comes in handy for more than just meditating.

I guess the social thing on the Insight Timer app might be good for some, but it doesn't seem necessary for me. I might try it again later if I can figure out how to boost my new phone's speaker volume. For now I'll just stick to using the alarm clock app though.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C. S. Lewis

poto wrote:I recently got myself a new smartphone. Remembered this thread and thought I would download the Insight Timer app for android.

Turns out the singing bowl tone thing is too quiet for my phone. I had turned the volume up to max too. Maybe my phone's speakers just suck or there is too much ambient noise, but when it ended I did not hear the ending sound. I did only try the free version, while the pay version has a thing where you can repeat the tone for a few times, which might help me hear it better, I dunno.

Hi, poto,I have had similar problems with new software on computer and discovered after a while that there was a volume setting in the software settings quite separate from the volume setting on the OS, such that you need both of them to be set fairly high to get any volume out of it. I haven't used Insight Timer but it might work that way - worth another look, maybe.

Insight timer's been great for me. I love seeing the charts and statistics about my meditation, it is really quite helpful. The social aspect really is very small, sometimes I receive messages from people I don't know thanking me for meditating with them. I feel like responding: "Really? I didn't know I was meditating with you, have you been sneaking into my lounge every time I sit down for meditation?!? "

But for some the social aspect is quite helpful, there are various message boards for people in their respective groups, and it allows people to keep in touch and or ask for advice just the same as this board here.

All in all, I couldn't recommend it more.

"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta

BlackBird wrote:Insight timer's been great for me. I love seeing the charts and statistics about my meditation, it is really quite helpful. The social aspect really is very small, sometimes I receive messages from people I don't know thanking me for meditating with them. I feel like responding: "Really? I didn't know I was meditating with you, have you been sneaking into my lounge every time I sit down for meditation?!? "

Sorry about that!

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Haha you're not the problem here Ben, you'd be welcome in my lounge. It's the random yogis from Europe and America that have me raising my eyebrows

"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta

Kim OHara wrote:Hi, poto,I have had similar problems with new software on computer and discovered after a while that there was a volume setting in the software settings quite separate from the volume setting on the OS, such that you need both of them to be set fairly high to get any volume out of it. I haven't used Insight Timer but it might work that way - worth another look, maybe.

Kim

Edit: fixed typo

Aye, that's why I haven't deleted the app from my phone yet, as I thought it might be something like that. I have yet to break down and read the manual, but I might give the manual a crack this weekend if my random-button-pressing doesn't yield the desired results before then.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C. S. Lewis

Kim OHara wrote:Hi, poto,I have had similar problems with new software on computer and discovered after a while that there was a volume setting in the software settings quite separate from the volume setting on the OS, such that you need both of them to be set fairly high to get any volume out of it. I haven't used Insight Timer but it might work that way - worth another look, maybe.

Kim

Edit: fixed typo

Aye, that's why I haven't deleted the app from my phone yet, as I thought it might be something like that. I have yet to break down and read the manual, but I might give the manual a crack this weekend if my random-button-pressing doesn't yield the desired results before then.

Might give the insight timer another go though it didn't win me over last time I tried it. I miss the journaling feature from iSamadhi.

Hi Anders,

Insight Timer has a journal feature. Perhaps its only on the paid version? I have it on mine but I must confess I don't use that feature.kind regards,

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725